Vulnerable
by Sleepyreader13
Summary: She'd never seen anything like it. She'd never once in her entire life witnessed such a thing. Vulnerable moments weren't part of Phantom's normal routine, and you'd be surprised at what you see while hidden in the bushes. Danny X Dani Bonding!


A/N- Because finals are more boring than watching paint dry.

Disclaimer- I don't own Danny Phantom.

* * *

In all the years she'd worked with them, she'd never seen a ghost react like that.

She'd seen them become angry, rash, and vastly powerful, but in all her career she'd never seen a ghost throw all self-preservation to the wind in an act of protection. She'd seen them all fight, but she'd never seen one attack with such single minded determination, provoked or not. She'd seen them banter, she'd seen them goat and antagonize each other, but she'd never seen one do something of such significance that it almost literally broke them. She'd never seen a ghost have a cause to snap, but she did today. She'd never seen that look on anyone's, let alone his normally smiling one, face.

Rage, loathing, and pure, undiluted hatred burned on his snarling face. His eyes shone an acid green in the dark. He wasn't just angry, he was irate. She'd never seen so much power, and never from this being, and it scared her slightly to know he had held back this much.

She'd gotten there just as it had happened, just before Phantom had arrived. The sounds of crashes had attracted her, and the situation had frozen her solid, but she had no idea it was what would make him snap.

The clearing was wide and, grass was burned and laid flat in places. Trees had scorch marks in them and the one bench in the area was smoking. The ghost known as Walker was floating in the middle, looking down and smirking at a ghost girl who was struggling on the ground. Her snow white hair was matted with ectoplasm, her black and white suit ripped and torn to reveal cut and bruised skin beneath. Her hands were slicked with green ectoplasm, but that didn't stop her from tearing at the thick metal band clamped around her neck. She thrashed around; leaving another patch of grass laid flat and stained light green.

She wouldn't have had the chance to help even if she wasn't frozen to the spot because, at that moment, Walker pressed a glowing thumb to the remote in his hand. The girl shrieked, and her hands clenching around the metal band as her body shook uncontrollably.

"Dani!" Phantom shouted as he burst through the trees.

The girl's only response was for her scream to wilt, and her eyes to flutter closed as he got to her.

He threw himself down beside her, throwing a thin ecto-shield around them. Her body didn't respond to his voice, even when he shouted her name, or his touch. He was about to touch the metal band around her neck when he jumped back.

It didn't take her long to see why. Her hair was singed, electrical sparks ran over her skin, burning as it went, and her already closed eyes rolled as she shook. A unconscious scream tore itself from her lips, and Phantom's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before they narrowed into slits.

The shield around them shined; instead of an eerie glow, the whole thing solidified, green light coming off in blinding waves. Cracks ran down the sides, and the shield broke, power exploding outward. Energy blasted everything, burning everything in range, and the heat could be felt from where she sat, hidden behind a bush.

She'd never seen anything like him.

His aura lit up the night, white power radiated off of him, making the acid green glow coming from his eyes even more unnatural. He lifted off the ground, feet and legs twisting together into a tail. His hands lit with energy, the power swirling in white-green flames that made their way all the way up to his elbows. The air around him seemed to darken, and his aura burned even brighter for just a moment, and then he growled, his voice echoing unnaturally in the night.

"Walker," The fire around his finger flared white and the other ghost's smirk vanished.

Walker never stood a chance.

He seemed to shrink as Phantom advanced, before eventually taking a step back and actually dropping the remote he was holding. Phantom lunged. Fiery blasts enveloped the ghost, kicks and punches and ecto-powered slashes cut at all exposed skin. Every attempt at defense was met with such fierce and powerful set of attacks that it didn't even matter. Words were yelled, but they drowned in the volley of attacks.

"Why?" Phantom shouted, blasting Walker to the ground in front of him.

"Why!" Phantom demanded, sending a white hot blast at the fallen ghost.

"Why won't you leave her _alone!"_ His last word morphed into something that could only be described as a wail. Power radiated down on the ghost, forcing him back into the ground and blasting him with the powerful energy.

The attack continued, power still forcing the jailer ghost back into the crater he was forming. Grass was ripped from the ground, dirt flew, and still Phantom attacked, sending the massive waves point blank at the ghost. It continued for what seemed like hours, but was really only seconds, and only stopped when Walker shimmered and dissipated into smoke.

"Go back to the Ghost Zone;" Phantom said to the empty air, "Coming back's against the rules."

That's when the scowl dropped off his face completely, replaced by what could almost be panic. He flew over to the girl, Dani, and dropped to his knees beside her.

"Dani, come on, wake up," he said, brushing her matted hair out of her face.

She'd never seen him this vulnerable, this open, and it made her feel like an intruder. She didn't belong here in this private moment, but she was frozen in place. His face was so open, nothing like the snarky expression he wore when he fought, and it made him seem younger. His vulnerability increased when he started talking to the unconscious girl.

"You know, I'd never be able to say this with you awake, what with us both being bad with emotions and all, but I really need to tell you something." He said, grabbing her gloved hand with his and rubbing soothing circles over the bruised skin.

He sighed, then started again, "Do you know what it does to me to know you're constantly on the run? It kills me to know you don't have a single place to live right now. You know Val would take you in, and I would at any time, you'd just have to ask. You wouldn't though, would you? You've got too much me in you for that."

_She had too much of him in her? What is he, her father?_ She thought.

Phantom continued, "I don't know where you got that idea that you were just a clone. It was probably Vlad, right? He's wrong, you know. You've never been just a clone, you've been family. I care about you, Dani, so much. Not like Sam, of course, that would be weird, but like a daughter."

He seemed to stop, his hands just cradling one of hers, and he looked at her, concern laced in his eyes. "I'm sure Vlad didn't say it enough, so I will. I love you."

She'd never seen anything like it. She'd seen him get mad, seen him snap before, but never in her life had she pictured this would be the reason. The amount of power he had used, it had been colossal, but what he had used it for made the difference. To save his loved ones. She had never seen him cause that much damage to anything, but his reasons were sound.

She couldn't blame him for what he did because she would have done the same.

Phantom opened his mouth again, but he never got the chance to speak. At that moment, the girl's eyes, as acid green as his, fluttered open and he smiled.

"You know," she rasped, looking up at him. "I love you too."

She couldn't help but think that ghosts weren't really as evil as she had thought.

* * *

Tell me how I did?


End file.
